SUMMER 2014

I kinda want to say WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO?   But I actually know exactly where it went.  

Summer 2014 was the best summer I can remember.  One for the books!  Our goal was to make the very most of this, the last summer before having a Kindergartener.  And boy did we ever.  

Rustin took two and a half weeks off in June/July and it was amazing.  Our first summer adventure began with that wonderful trip to Lake Oconee, a kids paradise.

After a week of jet skiing, tubing, boating, watersliding and eating s'mores at the lake, we went to San Diego for a week.  We spent our days at the beach, the pool, Legoland, playing with cousins, eating more smores, and fireworks!

When we got back from our trips, Lucca had ballet camp, which was just magical.  She is such a princess and I could just devour her in that sweet leotard and bun that was required each day.  Not to mention the camp was held at a "castle" too.

Jackson spent a few days at preschool camp that week, which was the first time all summer I had a few hours alone.  Not complaining.

And did I mention the kids had two weeks of swimming lessons?  Lucca completely learned to swim this summer and it's amazing to watch her go!  Especially since last summer she didn't even want to put her face in the water.  So proud of her.  Jackson had fun in his lessons to, although we will be signing him up for several more lessons ;)

In August, we decided to throw all our plans out the window and join Daddy in LA where he was filming a commercial.  I drove (!!) down to LA with the kids by myself, and it was amazing.  These kids are the BEST travelers.  They love adventure.   We stayed at a fancy hotel with a bunch of rock stars and ordered fancy breakfasts all week long.  Lucca was in heaven! While Daddy was working, we spent our time in the hotel pool and wandering about LA, finding ourselves at magical places like the American Girl store and Dylan's Candy Bar, and getting our hair done all fancy at The Grove.  When Daddy wasn't working, we rode bikes at the beach.  And when the kids went to bed, we would order room service and sit out on our patio for late night dinners and drinks.  The whole week was spontaneous and fun and just absolute perfection.

We even headed back down to San Diego for a couple days and went back to Legoland.  What an adventure that was, with 5 little kids and 2 little {brave} mommies.  Perhaps the entire week wasn't all perfection ;)

After we got back home to Marin from our Southern CA road trip, we had a week of zero plans. It was nice and relaxing to sleep in, watch TV, spend hours at the park, go swimming with friends and enjoy the last bits of summer freedom.  We did squeeze in The Fremont Diner, Traintown and the Coppola Pool too :)

Lucca went to Vacation Bible School for the last week of summer and loved it.  It was special to spend the extra alone time with Jackson too.  

See? A good summer, right?  Mission fully accomplished.